In recent years, information terminal devices such as portable telephone devices have not only a verbal communication function but also a number of other functions such as an Internet function, an e-mail function, a digital camera function, a recorded sound reproducing function, a video viewing function, and a schedule management function. Also, there are terminals (smartphones) similar to small-sized personal computers, having a TV (one-segment broadcasting) reception function, a full keyboard (a QWERTY keyboard) that facilitates e-mail creation, the SNS, blogging, and text inputs into business applications and the likes, and a high-speed communication function.
Such an information terminal device may have a foldable housing that can change its total length, or a slidable housing, so as to increase the operability at the time of a verbal communication and increase the usability when the information terminal device is carried around.
In a case where a foldable housing is employed, the display screen (the display) is a portrait-oriented screen. Therefore, when a TV program or a video is viewed, the display should be turned on its side. Recently, information terminals (portable telephone devices) that have the mechanism for rotating the display 90° have been developed.
In a case where a slidable housing is employed in an information terminal (particularly, a smartphone), the structure disclosed in Published Japanese Translation No. 2007-518155 of the PCT international publication for a patent application. In this document, a device is formed with first through third module layers. The sliding direction of the second module layer with respect to the first module layer differs from the sliding direction of the third module layer with respect to the second module layer.
Further, smartphones (such as EMONSTER (S11HT) of EMOBILE Ltd.) have recently appeared on the market. Such a smartphone has a second housing slidably connected to a first housing having a full keyboard. The second housing has a display. The second housing can tilt with respect to the first housing.
However, the device disclosed in Published Japanese Translation No. 2007-518155 and the smartphones that have recently appeared on the market do not fully satisfy the demands of users.
For example, in the device disclosed in Published Japanese Translation No. 2007-518155, the display cannot form a desired angle when a TV program (one-segment broadcasting) is to be viewed while the device is placed on a desk or the like. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a sloping base, so as to set the display at the desired angle. Also, the display is set at a desired angle when an input is to be made through the full keyboard.
Also, to achieve a small-size device and a large-size display at the same time like the smartphones that have recently appeared on the market, a large number of buttons cannot be arranged on the housing carrying the display. Also, to achieve a small size, there are many cases where only a full keyboard without numeric keys is provided. In such cases, numbers need to be input by combining function keys and particular keys, for example.
Therefore, to change channels while viewing a TV program, or to input a number directly to spreadsheet software or the like, it is necessary to use a full keyboard and cursor keys. The user friendliness in such cases is not very high.